Changing out my water pump this weekend. Any recommendation for a 71 350? I'd like it to look nice, but the main thing is it's gotta flow good. Anyone with a chrome one regret it? Not sure chrome would look best here anyway. Also, if anyone happens to have any pictures that would be great too.

 

I've got a stage 2:

www.stewartcomponents.com

Brett

 

the stewart WP's as mentioned above are very good but if your motor is stock or close to stock the GM factory stock WP's are excellent and flow plenty of volume for cooling.

 

Use the stock GM A/C Delco unit, less than $40.

 

Sorry I didn't post my signature with my modifications. Any changes? Those Stewart's sound nice.

 

I personally would still stay with the stock GM Delco unit.

 

The thing I noticed about the aftermarket higher flowing water pumps is that they indeed flow more water. In my case, it flows more to the point that my water temp. fluctuates between normal and a bit on the cool side. 195-160. I am using a 195 thermostat.I attribute it to the higher flow. I switched back to the stock one and everything stabilized again. So I concluded it was definately the pump. But because it looks soo much better, I put the aftermarket pump back on. Hpoe this helps with your decision.
TJ

 

What are the benefits to running an aftermarket water pump?

 

What kind of pump do you have?

 

Were you using the high flow thermostat to go along with the high flow water pump?

 

How does your temp get down to 160 if you're using a 195 stat????

Brett

 

 

195 stat ?...temp 160 ??? Stat must be stuck open...

 

Wonder if that can be from the increased pressure and flow of the new pump and not using the recommended pressure balanced thermostat as Xakk asked?

 

typically the benefit is higher volume flow and that's usually a pretty good thing for something like a racing motor BUT on a street motor sometimes more is not always better.
As been mentioned already many times a higher flow pump will move too much coolant too quickly not allowing time for the coolant to pull the hear out of the motor and not allowing the radiator to cool the coolant down enough. The "higher performance" part now defeats the entire purpose of it's use.
This is one of the reasons that in a LOT of cases it's just better to stick with a stock part rather than a catalog "hot rod" or "racing" part.
Race car parts belong on race cars, not on street cars.
If you call up a place like JEGS or Summit though they won't tell you that because they are in the business to sell parts. They will just accept your order and take your money and than after you install this "higher performance" part on your car and wonder why things aren't working right they will just shrug and say "I don't know".

They is a VERY, VERY wise man over on the C1/C2 section who also use to be an engineer for GM in the corvette division under Zora.
He has said something many times that I've seen backed up by other experiences on the forum countless times already.
what he says is: "when you don't need to, don't reengineer what you don't have to". Actually that paraphasing it because he has said the same thing in a few different ways many times.
GM spent a LOT of time and money engineering every system on the car to work properly together. For example, on the the cooling system, they didn't just choose a particular style and volume water pump simply because they were offered a good deal on it from a vendore. It's designed to flow the correct amount of coolant that's needed for proper cooling - not more than it needs because that has it's own drawbacks, and certainly not less than it needs because they are in the business of selling cars and do NOT want cars coming back for warranty service because of cooling problems - that reduces profits.

Unless you have a VERY highly modified motor that you are using I'd say mostly for racing usage and very little street use the stock water pump is an excellent unit, very dependable with very low failure rates, and is not very expensive at all so why spend more money on an aftermarket unit that will typically cost more and not work any better and may even not work as well?

 

It is an Edelbrock. The motor is a 375 hp 355 c.i. Stock radiator. Thought I would need the higher flow, but I didn't. I don't like the look of the cast iron stocker, that's why I keep it. I think it sends the coolant back to the motor faster and it cycles the thermostat. It's not a big deal. Only does it when I get off the highway or stop at an intersection for more than a min. or so.
TJ

 

Okay. That being said, it is also true that C3's were pretty much pieces of junk construction-wise. Let's be honest; components were made to be just barely good enough to last a few years. Everything was pretty much slapped together from off-the-shelf parts. C3's were no finally machined Italian Sports car.

It's like this, if I bought all new GM compnents and totally rebuilt the whole entire car, everything will still start to fall apart after only a few years. Face it, that's the way cars were made back then. The C5ers might tell you they still are...

Anything I can do to improve reliability, performance, and longevity, without ruining the original character of the car, I do.

 

There may be some truth to that. On the other hand I'll take GM/AC parts ahead of any of the rebuilt crap you get at the local parts store. I got an new AC water pump from MidAmerica of all places.

 

Not sure what the weight savings is of having an aluminum as an alternative to the stock pump, but I'd consider that too.

 

I agree there--I buy either new GM/AC or an aftermarket alternative that I have carefully researched. I also want the aftermarket part to fit like the orginal--first to make it easy to replace way down the road and to keep the car basically intact to keep repairing consistant over the years because I plan to have my C3 til it's totaled or I'm totaled.